REPLY  of 
Don  VENUSTIANO    CARRANZA 

to  the 
Chief  of  the  Northern  Division 


The  First  Chief  of  the  Constitutionalist  Army,  in  charge  of  the 

Executive  Power,  to 
THE  MEXICAN  PEOPLE 


REFUTATION  OF  THE  MANIFEST  OF 
GENERAL  FRANCISCO  VILLA 


El  Liberal,  Mexico  D.  F.,  Sunday,  October  25th,  1914. 

I  have  deliberately  allowed  the  Manifest  written  for  General 
Villa  in  Chihuahua,  and  signed  by  him,  to  circulate  freely,  my  object 
in  so  doing  being  that  the  people  might  become  familiar  with  the  rea- 
sons by  which  the  authors  of  the  "Manifest,"  pretend  to  justify  this 
man's  rebellion,  in  refusing  to  recognize  me  as  First  Chief  of  the 
Constitutionalist  Army  and  in  charge  of  the  Executive  Power  of  the 
Union.  Although  the  false  statements  and  contradictions  in  this 
document  are  apparent,  I  shall  make  it  my  duty  to  refute  it  with  plain 
facts. 

Villa's  Manifest  begins :  "When  the  democratic  government  of 
Mr.  Madero  was  overthrown,  a  great  accomplishment  of  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  of  1910,  the  Mexicans  again  set  out  to  conquer 
their  freedom  and  their  rights,  thus  proving  to  the  Nation  and  to  the 
whole  world,  that  imposition  in  Mexico  has  been  banished  forever  and 
that  henceforth  Mexicans  will  only  be  governed  by  rulers  which  they 
themselves  have  placed  in  power. 

Evidently,  General  Villa  forgets  something  that  he  should  always 
remember  to  his  shame:  that  on  May  13th,  1911,  immediately  after 
the  victory  of  the  taking  of  Ciudad  Juarez,  General  Villa  and  his 
partner,  Pascual  Orozco,  seized  the  Provisional  President  of  the 
Republic,  Don  Francisco  I.  Madero,  who  after  he  had  managed  to 
escape  this  first  coup  d'etat,  looked  upon  Villa  with  contempt  and  gave 
orders  to  shoot  him,  which  orders  were  not  carried  out  because  as 
everyone  knows  Mr.  Madero's  goodness  had  no  bounds. 

It  is  not  surprising  therefore,  that  the  man  who  attempted  to 
overthrow  by  violence,  the  democratic  government  of  Mr.  Madero, 
now  declares  it  a  wonderful  accomplishment  of  the  revolutionary 
movement  of  1910,  and  again  resorts  to  violence,  trying  to  impose 
upon  the  people  a  government,  while  he  states  that  they  will  only 
respect  governments  which  they  themselves  have  placed  in  power." 

Villa  declares  that  "the  Northern  division,  which  had  been  the 
object  of  my  political  intrigues,  fearing  more  than  any  of  the  other 
divisions  that  the  revolutionary  ideals  would  remain  unaccomplished" 
proposed,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Northeastern 
division  in  Torreon,  to  celebrate  a  Convention  on  a  democratic  basis, 
and  he  further  states  that  I  refused  to  accept  this  arrangement.  The 
truth  regarding  the  conferences  of  Torreon  has  never  been  told,  but 
it  ought  to  be.  The  meeting  in  Torreon  was  held  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  Generals  of  the  Northeastern  division,  and  not  of  the  Northern 
division,  as  Villa  asserts,  and  it  was  done  to  find  a  way  out  of  the 
difficulties  brought  on  by  one  of  the  most  grave  disobediences  of 
General  Villa. 

These  are  the  facts :  General  Natera,  who  was  attacking  Zacatecas 
and  had  already  taken  possession  of  important  positions  in  that 
locality,  was  urgently  asking  for  reinforcements — I  then  gave  orders 
to  Villa  to  send  to  Zacatecas  in  all  possible  haste,  five  thousand  or 
more  men,  under  the  command  of  whatever  chief  he  rriight  deem  con- 
venient. After  offering  many  groundless  excuses  for  not  obeying  this 
order,  he  finally  replied  that  he  would  either  go  with  all  his  forces,  or 

I 


resign  his  command  of  the  Northern  division.  My  answer  to  him  was 
to  the  effect  that  there  was  no  cause  for  such  an  action  on  his  part, 
and  repeated  my  order  to  him,  that  he  was  to  go  to  the  assistance 
of  General  Natera,  who  found  himself  every  moment  in  a  more  and 
more  embarrassing  position.  Villa  then  presented  his  resignation, 
thinking  that  I  would  not  accept  it,  which  I  did,  but  he  nevertheless 
continued  at  the  head  of  the  Northern  division,  and  after  rebelling 
against  me  as  First  Chief,  marched  against  Zacatecas. 

The  Generals  of  the  Northeastern  division  seeing  in  the  attitude 
of  General  Villa  a  serious  danger  to  all  concerned,  they  arranged 
with  the  Chiefs  of  the  Northern  division,  to  celebrate  some  confer- 
ences in  the  State  of  Torreon.  At  these  conferences,  it  was  agreed 
to  submit  to  my  approval,  certain  propositions,  and  I  must  hereby 
state  that  I  did  not  intervene  or  take  any  part  whatsoever  in  these 
conferences,  and  therefore  was  not  bound  to  accept  its  decisions. 
Nevertheless,  when  the  different  arrangements  were  put  before  me 
for  my  consideration,  I  accepted  some  points  and  rejected  others. 
I  agreed  to  have  General  Villa  continue  at  the  head  of  the  Northern 
Division,  furnishing  provisions  for  his  men,  and  letting  him  have  the 
coal  of  the  Coahuila  coal-mines  for  his  trains,  and  for  the  use  of  the 
railroad  traffic  in  the  region  occupied  by  him.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Northern  Division  agreed  to  return  to  obedience  and  place  itself 
under  my  orders — they  also  agreed  to  rescind  their  hold  of  the  Rail- 
roads, and  place  them  at  the  disposition  of  the  Department  of  Comuni- 
caciones  (that  is,  the  Railroads  traversing  the  territory  occupied  by  the 
Division  of  the  North)  also  to  hand  over  the  National  Treasury,  the 
Customs  of  Ciudad  Juarez,  the  Tax-Stamp  Office,  the  Department  of 
State  and  all  the  other  federal  offices  which  they  had  forcibly  seized 
at  the  time  they  revolted,  and  to  hand  over  to  their  rightful  owners 
several  millions  dollars  issued  by  the  Constitutional  Government  and 
which  they  were  unlawfully  retaining  in  their  power. 

One  of  the  clauses  of  the  agreement  which  I  did  not  accept, 
was  that  of  conferring  upon  Villa  the  grade  of  General  of  Division, 
as  I  did  not  deem  it  justified  to  recompense  an  insubordination  with  a 
promotion.  Another  clause  to  which  I  would  not  agree  was  that  pro- 
viding that  General  Angeles  (whom  I  had  dismissed  because  I  found 
him  unworthy  of  the  position  entrusted  to  him)  should  resume  his 
post  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  with  the  understanding  that  im- 
mediately after  his  reinstatement,  he  would  make  his  resignation. 
This  did  not  seem  to  me  to  be  a  correct  thing  to  do,  it  being  too  much 
like  the  proceedings  of  Diaz,  and  his  sham  pardons,  proceedings 
which  cannot  be  accepted  by  anyone  with  claims  to  self-respect. 

Facts  have  been  concealed  and  misrepresented,  for  the  purpose 
of  accusing  me  of  having  violated  agreements,  which  could  in  no  sort 
or  manner  be  binding  for  me,  and  of  having  transgressed  these  same 
agreements  by  summoning  a  Junta  of  Generals  and  Governors  of  the 
States  in  the  City  of  Mexico.  This  last  mentioned,  was  an  agreement 
which  I  had  voluntarily  entered  into,  and  which  I  was  therefore  bound 
to  comply  with,  which  I  did.  But  General  Villa,  who  shields  himself 
behind  the  Northern  Division,  and  speaks  always  in  the  name  of  this 
Division,  though  he  knows  well  that  not  all  the  Generals,  Chiefs, 

2 


Officers  and  soldiers  share  his  opinions,  he  asserts  that  "Since  the 
Northern  Division  had  lost  its  faith  in  the  First  Chief,  they  natural- 
ly could  not  put  it  in  a  Junta  whose  members  were  practically 
chosen  by  me,  as  it  was  I  who  had  the  power  to  confer  the  grade  of 
General,  and  to  appoint  the  Governors  of  the  different  States,  which 
at  all  times  would  give  me  an  assured  majority. 

Grievous  and  insulting  accusations,  these  that  Villa  hurls  against 
the  Constitutionalist  Army  and  its  worthy  chiefs!  His  desire  to 
harm  me  is  so  "great,  that  he  audaciously  makes  the  offense  extensive 
to  all  his  comrades-in-arms !  Let  General  Villa  know  that,  should  I 
have  the  majority  in  that  Junta,  it  would  be  because  the  majority  of 
Constitutionalist  Chiefs  are  true  to  their  words,  to  themselves  and  to 
their  ideals,  and  not  because  I  have  made  them  Generals.  I  also  made 
Villa  a  General,  and  he  betrayed  his  cause  and  did  not  fulfil  his 
promise. 

As  First  Chief  of  the  Constitutionalist  Army,  I  protest  with  more 
vigor  than  if  I  only  were  accused,  against  the  charge  of  servility  and 
abjection  made  by  General  Villa,  to  dishonor  through  history  the 
names  of  all  the  generals  who  have  followed  me  and  the  banner  of 
legality.  They  are  all,  according  to  Villa,  unworthy,  he  alone  is 
honorable  and  deserving. 

This  majority  of  unconditional  adherents  and  servile  chiefs 
would  be,  if  we  are  to  believe  Villa's  Manifest,  the  support  which 
would  assist  me  "to  remain  in  power  an  indefinite  length  of  time, 
and  to  govern  with  a  despotism  never  before  known  in  the  history  of 
our  country."  Strange,  is  it  not,  that  General  Villa  should  still  pre- 
tend not  to  know  that  the  Plan  of  Guadalupe,  accepted  by  him,  imposed 
on  me  the  obligation  of  assuming  the  Executive  Power  on  entering 
the  capital  of  the  Republic,  and  of  retaining  it  until  the  country  was 
pacified,  the  elections  taken  place,  and  Constitutional  order  re-establish- 
ed. General  Villa  also  pretends  to  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the 
Plan  of  Guadalupe  authorized  me  to  fix  a  date  for  elections  to  take 
place,  and  that  if,  moved  by  a  democratic  spirit,  I  declined  to  make 
use  of  this  authority,  convoking  instead  a  Junta  of  Generals  and 
Governors  of  the  States,  it  was  with  the  idea  that  among  other  things 
they  should  also  arrange  this  detail.  I  will  also  add  that  wishing  to 
give  the  Junta  entire  liberty  of  action,  I  made  to  them  my  resignation 
of  First  Chief  of  the  Constitutionalist  Army  and  the  Executive  Power. 
I  can  find  no  more  convincing  and  effective  refutation  of  the  calum- 
nious charges  made  by  General  Villa  against  me,  than  the  exposition 
of  the  facts  I  have  just  related.  (It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  one 
of  his  charges  is  that  of  my  planning  to  remain  in  power  an  indefinite 
length  of  time).  General  Villa  can  only  answer  my  justification,  by 
another  calumny:  that  I  instructed  all  the  chiefs  beforehand,  not  to 
accept  my  resignation,  and  that  they,  obeying  my  instructions,  again 
put  the  executive  power  in  my  hands,  not  by  a  voluntary  and  patriotic 
act,  which  would  have  been  to  me  a  just  source  of  pride  and  profound 
gratefulness — but  that  they  did  it — supposedly — through  the  abject 
servility  which  General  Villa  attributes  to  them. 

But  according  to  Villa,  I  have  not  only  the  intention  of  remain- 
ing indefinitely  in  power,  but  also  of  ruling  for  an  indefinite  length 


of  time,  with  a  despotism  never  before  equalled  in  the  history  of  our 
country.  Villa  pretends  to  found  his  assertions  on  several  reasons. 
He  says  I  refused  to  accept  the  title  of  Provisional  President,  which 
rightfully  pertained  to  me  according  to  the  Plan  of  Guadalupe,  placing 
me  under  the  restrictions  of  the  Constitution,  and  that  with  second 
intention  I  retained  the  title  of  First  Chief  of  the  Constitutionalist 
Army  and  Charge  of  the  Executive  Power.  To  this  charge  I  will  only 
say  that:  the  title  of  Provisional  President  is  in  fact  understood  in 
the  Plan  of  Guadalupe,  but  not  clearly  precised,  and  therefore  I 
chose  to  adopt  that  which  was  clearly  precised  in  the  mentioned  Plan, 
i.  e.  Charge  of  the  Executive  Power.  Moreover,  the  title  of  Provision- 
al President  could  not  place  me,  as  Villa  maintains,  under  Constitu- 
tional restrictions,  as  I  could  not  very  well  be  held  to  a  Constitutional 
system  which  does  not  yet  exist.  The  mere  fact  of  my  bearing  the 
title  of  Provisional  President  could  not  put  into  effect  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Republic. 

Villa  also  charges  me  with  having  changed  the  form  of  the  Con- 
stitutional oath.  This  charge  is  hardly  worth  a  reply,  it  being  such  an 
insignificant  detail  when  one  considers  that  no  public  functionary  or 
employe  can  be  obliged  to  obey  and  enforce  on  others  obedience  to  a 
Constitution  which  is  not  yet  effective.  Naturally  the  only  thing  that 
can  be  demanded  just  now  of  public  functionnaries  and  employes,  is 
the  promise  that  they  will  work  for  the  re-establishment  of  Con- 
stitutional order,  in  accordance  with  the  Plan  of  Guadalupe,  that 
being  the  final  goal  of  the  present  lawful  revolution.  General  Villa, 
who  accuses  me  of  such  an  insignificant  detail  as  that  of  having 
changed  the  form  of  the  oath :  Did  he  not  accept  as  a  necessity  brought 
on  by  the  Revolution,  the  enforcement  of  the  law  of  the  25th  of 
January?  Did  he  by  chance  obey  the  Constitution  which  he  now  so 
ardently  defends,  when  he  disposed  of  the  haciendas  in  Chihuahua, 
when  he  has  shot  men  without  giving  any  consideration  to  Constitu- 
tional guarantees,  when  he  has  not  even  respected  the  decrees  of  the 
First  Chief,  when  to  end  with,  regardless  of  international  policy  and 
regardless  of  the  Law  which  he  so  often  invokes,  he  proceeded  as  he 
did  in  the  case  of  the  Englishman,  Benton. 

He  accuses  me  of  not  having  chosen  my  Cabinet  in  accordance 
to  the  regulations  of  the  Constitution,  because  I  have  left  the  Secre- 
taries of  my  Cabinet  with  the  title  of  Superior  Officials.  Although 
this  charge,  like  the  preceding  one,  is  almost  too  insignificant  to  be 
noticed,  I  will  say  that,  outside  of  the  fact  that  I  am  not  obliged  to  act  in 
accordance  with  Constitutional  regulations  which  do  not  exist  as  yet, 
General  Villa  should  know,  and  also  those  who  have  made  his  Manifest 
for  him,  that  the  offices  of  Cabinet  Secretaries  can  be  served  by 
Assistant  Secretaries  or  Superior  Officials,  as  legally  as  by  regular 
Secretaries. 

General  Villa  says  that  "I  assumed  the  three  Constitutional 
Powers  while  I  suppressed  Judicial  Authorities,  and  that  I  left  the 
lives  and  interests  of  the  Mexicans  at  the  mercy  of  the  Military  Chiefs, 
without  legal  restrictions  of  any  sort."  This  recourse  was  made 
necessary  by  the  Revolution  itself,  and  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  The 
Plan  of  Guadalupe,  which  was  seconded  and  maintained  by  General 


Villa,  clearly  and  finally  denied  recognition  to  the  three  powers :  Exe- 
cutive, Legislative  and  Judicial.  In  these  circumstances,  brought  about 
by  the  very  nature  of  the  revolution,  the  First  Chief  and  the  Governors 
of  the  States,  with  a  view  to  catering  to  the  most  urgent  needs  of  the 
public,  have  prescribed  legislative  regulations  on  the  one  hand,  and  on 
the  other,  have  had  to  appoint  temporary  judicial  authorities,  giving 
them  special  faculties,  for  the  protection  of  the  lives  and  interests  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  country. 

Unfortunately  the  lives  and  interests  of  Mexicans  and  foreign 
residents  in  the  State  of  Chihuahua,  have  been  exposed  to  danger  in 
the  hands  of  Villa,  who  being  entirely  devoid  of  the  most  elementary 
administrative  notions,  and  completely  ignorant  of  the  meaning  of 
order,  is  only  a  tool  of  the  interests  which  surround  him,  for  he  has 
had  the  knack  of  bringing  to  his  side  many  men  who,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  were  instrumental  in  bringing  about  Mr.  Madero's  ruin. 
Among  his  adherents  is  also  a  Federal  General  who  has  had  a  demora- 
lizing influence  on  General  Villa.  This  man,  after  accepting  a  certain 
commission  in  Europe  for  the  usurper  Huerta,  came  to  me  with  cre- 
dentials as  to  his  honesty  and  uprightness,  from  some  members  of  the 
Madero  family. 

I  must  also  confirm  a  fact  which  however  is  well-known  to  every- 
one, and  that  is,  that  Villa,  without  previous  authority  from  the  Exe- 
cutive power,  drove  out  all  the  Spaniards  of  the  Laguna  District, 
without  taking  the  trouble  to  investigate  whether  these  foreigners  had 
in  any  way  been  implicated  in  the  struggle  we  had  had  with  the  dictator. 
He  also  confiscated  a  great  many  of  their  properties,  seizing  the 
products  of  their  farm-lands,  without  stopping  to  think  of  the  inter- 
national complications  which  would  result,  nor  of  the  indemnifications 
the  Government  would  have  to  pay  for  all  the  damages  sustained  by 
the  foreigners. 

I  am  also  accused  of  having  decreed  Constitutional  reforms 
"which  only  the  Congress  and  House  have  the  exclusive  right  to  do" 
such  as  the  suppression  of  the  Territory  of  Quintana  Roo.  It  is  true 
that  I  decreed  the  incorporation  of  the  Territory  of  Quintana  Roo  to 
the  State  of  Yucatan,  but  this  I  did  as  a  political  and  military  measure, 
in  order  to  strengthen  the  revolution  in  the  case  that  Yucatan  should 
support  our  cause,  and  this  could  not  have  been  done  without  the 
incorporation  of  Quintana  Roo,  because  as  a  Territory,  it  lacked  suf- 
ficient importance.  Moreover  this  measure,  as  all  others  of  a  similar 
nature  taken  by  me  during  my  administration,  are  only  of  a  temporary 
character,  for  they  are  subject  to  the  approval  or  rejection  of  the 
Legislative  bodies,  once  Constitutional  order  is  restored. 

Lastly,  General  Villa  accuses  me  of  having  "authorized  the  viola- 
tion of  rights  given  by  the  Constitution,  among  others,  liberty  of 
thought,  allowing  many  of  the  Governors  to  abolish  religious  worship, 
and  impose  penalties  for  the  observation  of  religious  practices,  which 
the  law  of  the  country  authorizes,  thus  deeply  wounding  the  religious 
sentiments  of  the  people,  by  acts  which  civilization  and  the  common 
law  condemn,  and  all  this  only  because  of  an  exaggeration  of  the 
otherwise  just  resentment  of  the  Constitutionalists  against  the  Catholic 


Clergy,  for  having  assisted  in  the  military  mutiny  and  supported  the 
dictatorship. 

If  General  Villa  were  only  able  to  fathom  the  meaning  of  what 
they  write  for  him  to  sign,  he  would  not  have  placed  himself  in  such 
an  unfavorable  light  by  making  this  accusation,  it  being  he,  who  exag- 
gerated this  just  resentment  of  the  Constitutionalists  against  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Catholic  clergy  who  supported  the  dictatorship,  carrying 
his  exaggeration  to  such  an  extreme  that  he  caused  great  alarm  and 
indignation  in  all  classes  of  society.  General  Villa,  who  is  now  making 
friendly  advances  to  the  clergy  with  much  outward  respect  for  religion 
and  its  practices,  used  to  drive  out  all  the  priests  and  close  the  churches, 
in  every  city  and  village  that  he  took  during  his  campaign.  In  Zacate- 
cas  he  crowned  his  anti-religious  frenzy  (which  so  greatly  contrasts 
to  his  Christian  mildness  of  the  present  time)  by  driving  out  eleven 
priests  of  different  Nationalities.  Of  this  number,  three  were  French, 
and  their  whereabouts  are  still  unknown.  This  would  be  a  good  op- 
portunity to  remind  General  Villa  of  the  warm  congratulations  he  sent 
to  General  Antonio  I.  Villareal,  Governor  of  Nuevo  Leon,  when 
Villareal  issued  a  restrictive  decree  prohibiting  the  Catholic  practice 
of  confession.  General  Villa's  congratulation  was  expressed  in  the 
following  terms : 

Chihuahua,  July  29th,  1914. 

General  Antonio  I.  Villareal: 

Please  accept  my  most  cordial  and  enthusiastic  con- 
gratulations for  your  decree  putting  restrictions  on  the  Clergy 
of  the  State  which  you  govern  with  such  ability.  I  am  taking 
the  necessary  measures  to  follow  your  wise  example,  for  like 
yourself,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  one  of  the  greatest  enemies 
of  our  freedom  and  progress,  has  been  the  corrupted  clergy 
which  for  so  long  has  repressed  our  people. 

Kindest  regards,  etc. 

General  Francisco  Villa. 

Villa  also  finds  fault  in  that  I  authorized  the  issue  of  Thirty 
Million  Pesos,  without  funds  to  guarantee  it.  To  this  I  can  say  that, 
it  being  urgently  necessary  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  army  and 
to  give  a  uniform  value  to  the  paper  money  circulated  by  the  Con- 
stitutionalists, I  resorted  to  the  only  way  out  of  it:  a  new  issue  of 
paper  money,  which  was  to  be  used  to  replace  the  paper  money  issued 
during  the  civil  war,  by  some  of  the  Governors  and  Military  Chiefs, 
to  whom  circumstances  made  it  impossible  for  me  to  send  them  the 
necessary  remittances  to  cover  the  actual  wants  of  their  soldiers.  The 
paper  of  this  new  issue  can  be  used  to  pay  importation  duties,  all  kinds 
of  contributions,  and  to  pay  for  the  purchase  of  lands  and  real  estate 
in  the  cities  and  in  the  country — and  when  peace  is  once  more 
established,  measures  will  be  adopted  to  properly  guarantee  this  money. 

While  on  the  subject  of  paper  money,  I  will  state  that  having 
authorized  General  Villa  to  issue  Six  Million  Pesos  with  which  to 
exchange  the  paper  money  issued  by  him  and  which  was  being  counter- 


feited  on  a  big  scale,  he  issued  the  Six  Million  as  instructed,  but  did 
not  exchange  it  gradually  destroying  the  other  issue,  so  that  the  six 
million  previously  issued  staid  in  circulation,  and  six  more  million 
began  to  circulate.  He  has  now  issued  in  Chihuahua,  without  my 
authority,  paper  money  amounting  nearly  to  Thirty  Million,  so  that 
the  Division  under  his  command  is  costing  the  Nation :  the  millions 
j  ust  mentioned ;  about  ten  million  more  which  headquarters  gave  him 
at  different  times  for  the  maintaining  of  his  forces ;  the  proceeds  of 
cotton,  mineral,  skins,  cattle  and  cereal  sales ;  the  proceeds  of  the 
Railroads,  compulsory  contributions  exacted  by  him,  proceeds  of  lot- 
teries and  gambling  houses  licensed  by  him,  etc.  etc.  If  Villa  has 
put  any  part  of  all  this  money  to  good  uses,  I  know  not,  but  I  can 
state  with  all  certainty  that  the  armies  of  the  Northeast  and  Northwest 
together,  which  outnumber  Villa's  more  than  twice  over,  have  not  spent 
anything  like  the  enormous  amounts  inverted  by  Villa.  This  was  one 
of  the  principal  reasons  I  had,  when  I  accepted  Villa's  resignation  of 
the  command  of  the  Northern  Division  after  the  incident  of  Zacatecas. 
I  wanted  to  impose  discipline  in  that  division,  and  to  put  a  stop  to  this 
useless  squandering  of  money  by  Villa,  which  in  the  end  would  have 
to  be  paid  by  the  people. 

Referring  to  the  charge  made  against  me  for  having  suspended 
traffic  between  Aguascalientes  and  Zacatecas,  I  must  here  confirm  my 
reasons  for  having  done  it.  When  General  Obregon  went  to  Chihua- 
hua as  per  my  instructions,  to  make  efforts  to  settle  peaceably  the 
misunderstandings  between  General  Arrieta,  of  the  forces  under  my 
command,  and  General  Calixto  Contreras  of  the  North,  and  the  forces 
in  Sonora,  I  was  informed  of  what  now  everybody  knows :  that  Villa 
tried  to  do  away  with  General  Obregon,  who  was  his  guest.  Then, 
doing  what  I  considered  was  my  duty,  I  asked  General  Villa  to  give 
an  explanation  for  his  unseemly  conduct  towards  General  Obregon. 
Instead  of  giving  the  satisfaction  demanded  of  him,  Villa  addressed 
me  a  message  (which  I  have  already  made  public)  telling  me  that  the 
Northern  Division  would  not  attend  the  Junta  of  Generals  and  Gover- 
nors convoked  by  me,  and  that  he  did  not  recognize  me  any  longer  as 
"First  Chief  of  the  Republic."  I  must  here  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  this  message  disowning  me  both  as  Head  of  the  Army  and 
Chief  Executive  of  the  Union,  was  not  the  work  of  all  the  Generals 
of  the  Northern  Division,  most  of  them  not  having  had  any  knowledge 
of  same  until  after  it  had  been  sent  by  Villa.  In  the  face  of  these 
facts,  who  is  it  that  began  to  make  trouble?  Was  it  I,  who  sent 
General  Obregon  so  that  he  might  confer  with  Villa  and  solve  the 
difficulties  which  had  come  up  in  the  North — or  was  it  Villa  who  took 
advantage  of  this  occasion  and  almost  did  away  with  the  Chief  of  the 
Northeastern  Division,  just  because  he  remained  loyal  to  me?  In 
view  of  these  unwarranted  proceedings,  I  had  to  take  the  necessary 
precautions  which  the  case  required,  and  it  was  with  this  idea  that  I 
cut  off  all  communications  with  the  Northern  Division.  . 

The  marked  persistence  with  which  the  Manifest  alludes  to  the 

Constitution,  to  the  re-establishment  of  the  Constitutional  Government, 

and  to  the  guarantee  of  a  Supreme  Law,  etc.  etc.  is  an  evident  proof 

'  that  the  politicians  who  wrote  the  Manifest  for  General  Villa,  and 

7 


Villa  himself,  far  from  understanding  and  wishing  the  realization  of 
the  aspirations  of  the  Mexican  people,  are  on  the  contrary  reaction- 
aries. Ah  obvious  proof  of  this  is  Villa's  conciliatory  attitude  towards 
the  Conservative  element  of  the  old  regime,  including  ex-federal  army 
officers  protected  by  Felipe  Angeles,  and  the  clerical  party,  whose 
privileges  Villa  openly  defends  in  his  Manifest.  A  further  proof  of 
his  reactionary  spirit  is  his  persistently  repeated  desire  of  inaugurating 
a  Constitutional  System  of  Government,  before  the  revolution  has 
had  time  to  effect  the  social  reforms  demanded  by  the  Nation.  He 
insists  on  the  immediate  re-establishment  of  the  Constitutional  system, 
so  that  in  the  regular  routine  of  the  three  Federal  Powers,  the  radical 
and  social  reforms  for  whose  prompt  adoption  we  have  been  struggling, 
may  be  presented,  studied,  discussed  and  resolved.  Useless  to  say 
that  this  would  be  a  postponement  of  these  reforms  to  such  a  far-off 
time,  that  the  result  would  be  null.  Those  who  clamor  for  this  are  the 
enemies  of  the  revolution. 

It  is  true  that  the  word  "Constitutionalism"  is  engraved  on  the 
colors  of  our  flag — it  is  true  that  our  final  aim  is  the  re-establishment 
of  a  Constitutionalist  order  which  will  allow  the  normal  operating  of 
institutions  which  protect  and  warrant  individual  rights,  and  we  shall 
not  lay  down  our  arms  until  we  have  obtained  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Law,  and  that  is  why  we  are  proud  to  call  ourselves  Constitutionalists. 
But  in  order  to  obtain  this  end,  it  is  necessary  to  satisfy  the  economical 
and  social  reforms  which  the  people  demand,  putting  into  practice 
without  loss  of  time  and  without  legislative  delays,  the  reforms  which 
along  these  lines  should  be  made. 

General  Villa  closes  his  Manifest  declaring  that  he  will  not  accept 
the  office  of  President  or  Vice-President,  either  provisional  or  Con- 
stitutional, of  the  Republic,  which  candidacies  nobody  has  offered  to 
him,  and  he  adds  that  he  has  no  ambition  to  rule.  We  shall  soon  be 
able  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  he  has  this  ambition. 

National  Palace  in  Mexico  City,  24th  of  October,  1914. 

V.  CARRANZA. 

NOTE — The  extent  of  Sr.  Carranza's  understanding  of  the  underlying 
motives  which  caused  Pancho  Villa  to  forsake  the  true  cause  of  the 
people  and  join  the  banner  of  the  Cientificos  and  reactionaries,  may  be 
judged  by  his  foreshadowing  of  certain  events  in  Villa's  camp.  More 
than  three  months  before  Villa  proclaimed  himself  as  the  "President  of 
Mexico,"  Carranza  predicted  that  that  was  the  real  aim  and  ambition  of 
the  shattered  idol,  Pancho  Villa.  He  was  fighting  to  realize  his  own  per- 
sonal whims  and  to  obtain  the  control  of  the  country  for  a  number  of 
wealthy  reactionaries-  He  wanted  to  rule  and  dictate;  he  was  aspiring  to 
be  the  chief  tyrant  of  the  land  beyond  the  Rio  Grande  and  Sr.  Carranza 
knew  it  better,  perhaps,  than  any  one  else  in  Mexico.  But  that  the  people 
of  the  United  States  could  not  be  fooled  by  his  "Green  Book"  is  evident 
by  the  editorial  which  appeared  in  the  N.  Y.  Evening  Sun,  of  January 
7.  Here  is  part  of  the  editorial :  "The  narrative  does  not  come  down  to 
the  Aguascalientes  convention,  which  Villa  dominated  and  which  first 
named  Antonio  Villareal  and  the  Hulalio  Gutierres  as  provisional  presi- 
dent- Villareal,  like  Obregon,  is  now  in  arms  against  Villa.  It  is  the 
avoidance  of  all  that  happened  since  the  Torreon  conference  that  im- 
pairs the  value  of  the  Green  Book  as  a  partisan  document," 


Issued  by 

MEXICAN  BUREAU  OF  INFORMATION 

834  WHITEHALL  BUILDING 
NKW  YORK  ciry 


Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
W.JAN.  21, 1908 


